stat() function

stat, fstat, lstat - get file status

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int stat(const char *path, struct stat *buf);
int fstat(int filedes, struct stat *buf);
int lstat(const char *path, struct stat *buf);

Description

These functions return information about a file. No permissions are required on the file itself, but -- in the case of stat() and lstat() -- execute (search) permission is required on all of the directories in path that lead to the file.

stat() stats the file pointed to by path and fills in buf.

lstat() is identical to stat(), except that if path is a symbolic link, then the link itself is stat-ed, not the file that it refers to.

fstat() is identical to stat(), except that the file to be stat-ed is specified by the file descriptor filedes.

All of these system calls return a stat structure, which contains the following fields:

struct stat {
   dev_t     st_dev;     /* ID of device containing file */
   ino_t     st_ino;     /* inode number */
   mode_t    st_mode;    /* protection */
   nlink_t   st_nlink;   /* number of hard links */
   uid_t     st_uid;     /* user ID of owner */
   gid_t     st_gid;     /* group ID of owner */
   dev_t     st_rdev;    /* device ID (if special file) */
   off_t     st_size;    /* total size, in bytes */
   blksize_t st_blksize; /* blocksize for filesystem I/O */
   blkcnt_t  st_blocks;  /* number of blocks allocated */
   time_t    st_atime;   /* time of last access */
   time_t    st_mtime;   /* time of last modification */
   time_t    st_ctime;   /* time of last status change */
};

The following flags are defined for the st_mode field:

S_IFMT	0170000	bitmask for the file type bitfields
S_IFSOCK	0140000	socket
S_IFLNK	0120000	symbolic link
S_IFREG	0100000	regular file
S_IFBLK	0060000	block device
S_IFDIR	0040000	directory
S_IFCHR	0020000	character device
S_IFIFO	0010000	FIFO
S_ISUID	0004000	set UID bit
S_ISGID	0002000	set-group-ID bit (see below)
S_ISVTX	0001000	sticky bit (see below)
S_IRWXU	00700	mask for file owner permissions
S_IRUSR	00400	owner has read permission
S_IWUSR	00200	owner has write permission
S_IXUSR	00100	owner has execute permission
S_IRWXG	00070	mask for group permissions
S_IRGRP	00040	group has read permission
S_IWGRP	00020	group has write permission
S_IXGRP	00010	group has execute permission
S_IRWXO	00007	mask for permissions for others (not in group)
S_IROTH	00004	others have read permission
S_IWOTH	00002	others have write permission
S_IXOTH	00001	others have execute permission

Linux Notes

Since kernel 2.5.48, the stat structure supports nanosecond resolution for the three file timestamp fields. Glibc exposes the nanosecond component of each field using names either of the form st_atim.tv_nsec, if the _BSD_SOURCE or _SVID_SOURCE feature test macro is defined, or of the form st_atimensec, if neither of these macros is defined. On file systems that do not support sub-second timestamps, these nanosecond fields are returned with the value 0.

For most files under the /proc directory, stat() does not return the file size in the st_size field; instead the field is returned with the value 0.

Return Value

On success, zero is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.